Area:

Distance:

– Jegersberg is very Close to the university UIA so we walked just 5-10min to the area.

Vegetation:

– Jegersberg is a large Forest. We find marked trails and small path. We also find lakes, Cliffs, Marshy areas, rivers and streams. Especially for the location (close to the town and 5 min walk from the university) we find a very divers area.

Ski qualities

– In Jegersberg we find prepared cross country ski trails, unprepared path where you can ski through the forest and wide flat areas with some little hills in it. The prepared cross country trails where very good to check the material, the wax and the skis. The smaller paths gave us an impression how it is to ski through unprepared and untouched areas. In the flat areas with the hills we had the opportunity to work on our technique with different tasks. The very steep parts we skipped because we had many beginners but for advanced groups they give a good opportunity to improve the ski-technique.

The role of the (vei)leader:

Leader/guide/instructor

The leader in our case Atkinson tried to give especially the beginners some advices to improve their skiing skills. He was the only Instructor so he couldn´t split of the large group of 21 students. Len tried to change his position in the group so he was in the front gave some information to the more advance students but spent most of the time at the end of the group helping the beginners.

In the beginning we tried our material and checked our equipment. Len just gave us brief instructions and answered individual questions. So we made our own experience how to check the material and the equipment.

The role of the students:

Motivation:

– Especially in the beginning all the students were very motivated. First real snow and our first cross country ski day. We started in a prepared flat area in very good conditions, the snow was around 0 to -1° degree and the sun was shining.

When the area changed from flat to a little steep hill the first beginner got the first problems to get up the hill. During the day the motivation of some students might get a little lower especially at the harder parts on the ski trip.

– After the break at the “play area” the motivation rose because we stayed at one place as a group. Nobody had to wait and nobody had to hurry up because all the others are waiting. On a little hill the tasks we got where good not to challenging for the beginner and still interesting for the more advanced students. And although many fell down the motivation was still very high.

Outcome and Free play VS organized play?

– In my opinion students have make own experience in movements to improve their skills. So I prefer the free play especially if you just started to learn something.

But for me free play doesn´t mean that you just get your skies, play around and after a while you´ll become a perfect skier. At a certain point you still need an organized setting and challenging tasks.

The leader or instructor should provoke situations where you can improve your skills and find your own movements to solve the task. So in my opinion it depends on the group, the level of skills and the area what kind of exercises or tasks have the best outcome. In the end you might find a path between both way where you have some free parts in your play and some more strict organized parts.

Evaluation

Pro

– All in all was it a good day all of us improved their skills and had a good time. The way was rich in variety so every one of us got a benefit out of the day even if we were on different levels.

 

Con

– We were more than 20 students on different levels so we “wasted” a lot of time with waiting and would get more benefit out of the day in smaller groups.

I´m not quite sure how you teach cross country in Germany but I think it´s not that different. I would start in the flat area with the little hill. I would create different task to learn the basic ski technic. After that I would split the group in to two to three groups and give the advance skier an own rout where they can go independently. I would stay with the beginner group and dependent on their level make a shorter and easier rout with them.